Canadian Hemp Activist, Businessman Busted By Vancouver Police

The resolution, adopted by a unanimous vote of the 51 state presidents and all 300 voting delegates, reads: "We recommend that [the] American Farm Bureau Federation encourage research into the viability and economic potential of industrial hemp production in the United States. We further recommend that such research includes planting test plots in the United States using modern agricultural techniques." Often described as "marijuana's misunderstood cousin," industrial hemp is from the same plant species that produces marijuana. Unlike marijuana, however, industrial hemp has only minute amounts of delta-9 tetrahydrocannabinol (THC), the psychoactive ingredient that gives marijuana its euphoric properties. Industrial hemp is currently grown legally throughout much of Europe and Asia and is being cultivated in test plots in Australia and Canada.

Andrew Graves, incoming president of the Fayette County chapter of the Kentucky Farm Bureau and vice-president of the Kentucky Hemp Growers Cooperative Association, introduced the resolution at the convention. "What we are asking for is research to determine whether industrial hemp can once again become a profitable agricultural commodity for American farmers just as it is for farmers around the world," Graves said in his presentation. "Where would agriculture be without research?" In a separate resolution, the AFB also voted to affirm its policy in support of government efforts to eradicate illegal drugs, including marijuana.

For more information on the Kentucky Hemp Growers Cooperative Association, please contact Andrew Graves at (606) 293-0579 or write to P.O. Box 8395, Lexington, KY 40533. The American Farm Bureau Federation may be contacted at (202) 484-3600.

The committee's first report is "descriptive" rather than "prescriptive" and reveals that violent crime today still remains at a historic high. "This study paints a realistic and sobering picture of violent crime in America," says Bennett.

Future reports and conferences will be aimed at addressing potential solutions to America's violent crime problem, the bipartisan task force announced. One of the problems that the bipartisan commission intends to address is the notion that America's current criminal justice system is simply a "revolving door" for career offenders.

"We are hear to underscore the American people's perception on violent crime," Bennett concluded.

For more information or for a copy of the report, "The State of Violent Crime In America," please contact Lara Stead by fax at (202) 822-8328.

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MORE THAN 10 MILLION MARIJUANA ARRESTS SINCE 1965... ANOTHER EVERY 65 SECONDS!

Regional and other news

Adult Prohibition Increases Kids' Usage

Compassionate Oregonians Meet In Portland

Compassionate Oregonians meets regularly in Portland on the third Thursday of the month. For more information, or to schedule a meeting in your area contact Sandee at (541) 298-8231 or write to PO Box 1164, Hood River, OR 97031.

"Prison-Building Binge Starts To Lose Its Appeal Even For Conservatives"

Some surprising voices are now saying that jails alone do not solve crime.

Republican Gov. Tommy Thompson of Wisconsin has said he will not build any more prisons. The secretary of corrections in Pennsylvania, Martin Horn, said the rise of inmates, particularly those for nonviolent drug offenses, would require a new prison to be built every two or three months.

"As a taxpayer and parent, I'm concerned that this may not be the best investment of the taxpayer's money," Horn told the New York Times.

Conservatives have begun to understand that prison alone can do more damage than good to inmates who will eventually come back into society.

"You can get drugs in prison, so they can go in and still get their little goodies," said Katie True, a Pennsylvania state representative and a Republican. But if you're in community service, they get you up and you do hard work for eight hours."

Community service was not a phrase you heard when Congress and President Clinton passed the Crime Bill. But now, with the nation's state and federal prison populations having quadrupled in the last two decades to 1.5 million inmates and local jails having more than doubled in just the last two years, from 223,500 to 490,000, some jails are resembling those in developing countries.

"It's really out of control," said Nancy Ortega, an attorney for the Southern Center for Human Rights. "People want to jam as many inmates as possible into these jails, but they don't want to pay for services. I'm not talking about their coffee being too cold. I'm talking about basic human needs, where it's not 125 degrees in the cells in the summer and so cold in the winter that water in the toilet freezes, where you're not assaulted and the guy next to you has tuberculosis."

Before you write that last statement off as coming from a do-gooder liberal, she is seconded by Dean Moser of the National Sheriffs Association.

"You're seeing a very volatile situation," Moser said. "It's almost like a pressure valve in them. You're taking a county jail that was meant for 12-month sentences and less, and you're making it into a prison setting." Some people, like Massachusetts Gov. Bill Weld, have dealt with prison overcrowding by banishing 299 prisoners to Texas, the state that has executed more people than any other state and has built so many jails - with no known effect on crime or fear of crime - that it does business with seven states. Colorado sends some crooks to Minnesota. North Carolina sends some to Rhode Island.

The shuffles are nothing but political stunts that avoid burgeoning problems. Medical costs for prisoners grew from $175 million in 1991 to $250 million in 1994. New cells cost about $100,000 per head to build. It costs $23,000 a year to lock up an adult, and twice that in many states to incarcerate juveniles. Privately run, for-profit prisons are not proving to be any more efficient at reducing costs.

These are numbers that are finally getting across to governors and legislators with whom we entrust our money. Make no mistake. Much of America remains locked in a punitive, throw-away-the-key mood. Some small towns are still begging for new jails to boost sagging employment.

"We are in essence building dumps," said Simon Dinitz, who is a criminologist and professor emeritus at Ohio State University. "You fill up the dumps with prisoners."

We have been filling them up so fast, there are no longer bleeding-heart liberals crying uncle. To match the current rate of incarceration, Pennsylvania would have to spend up to $10 billion on prisons over the next 20 years. Even the Republicans say no.

State Rep. Jerry Birmelin of Pennsylvania, a. Republican who chairs the Pennsylvania Legislature's Judiciary Committee, said: "It's really not in our best interest to build more prisons and lock up more people. I'm not saying put them out on the streets with no supervision. But if they're not rapists, murderers or violent criminals, we can have electronic monitoring and alternative sentencing. The key is making restitution."

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